Consoles=Computers?

The main reason I have always played far more games on video game consoles instead of computers is because of all the things that can go wrong or be wrong that prevent you from playing your game on a computer.

Install this update, need a better video card, need a better sound card, need more RAM, and of course all of the other strange error messages that can potentially pop up, requiring technical "know how" that I "know not".

With a video game console, you pop in the game and it plays. No matter how new or old the game is, if it says it was made for my console, my console will play it, right?

Well, a disturbing trend may be changing that in the long run. As consoles go online we begin to see downloadable content and even patches to fix bugs in games. I haven't had reason to complain until now, when a bit of downloadable content for my copy of "Dragon Age Origins" seems to be messing up my gameplay a bit.

It doesn't break the game or anything, but if I want to use an in-game item I payed for with real world money, I have to be connected to the internet on my 360. I only have one ethernet cable in my room and I use that for my computer. (I don't have any interest in online gaming and so haven't gotten a cable or wireless adapter for my 360.)

EA is working on the problem, but I suspect the solution will involve me having to restart my entire game, so I have put off playing it for now. Pretty frustrating. And not a good sign for the future of consoles.